Fascism

A Warning

The former U.S. secretary of state presents a timely, considered, and personal look at the history and current resurgence of fascism and the virulent threat it poses to international freedom, prosperity, and peace."A personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today's world, written by one of America's most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state. A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, 'is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.' The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions of innocent people dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that very assumption. Fascism, as Albright shows, not only endured through the course of the twentieth century, but now presents a more virulent threat to peace and justice than at any time since the end of World War II. The momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse. The United States, which has historically championed the free world, is led by a president who exacerbates popular divisions and heaps scorn on democratic institutions. In many countries, economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of right and left. Contemporary leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are employing many of the same tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and 30s. Fascism: A Warning is a book for our times that is relevant to all times. Written with wisdom by someone who has not only studied history but helped to shape it, this call to arms teaches us the lessons we must understand and the questions we must answer if we are to save ourselves from repeating the tragic errors of the past."--Dust jacket.

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Albright promotes fascism while pretending to oppose it.
--- Condemns "dehumanization" (tho Republicans are "irredeemable deplorables"). Supports extermination of 50,000,000 unborn babies since Roe on Naziesque pretext they aren't people. She defended our killing 500,000 Iraqi children with sanctions.
--- Upholds Bush/Obama devastation of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, killing 1,000,000, leaving the rest in chaos, and flooding Europe with refugees. Likes Bush despite his fraudulent WMD rants and world-threats ("You're either with us or the terrorists") because he was polite to her. Supports Obama drone-murder program.
--- Condones Ferguson rioters and arsonists. Declared that women would burn in Hell unless they supported Hillary. Says internet diminishes free press by allowing Republican ideas to spread.
--- Condones fascist violence of Dems (who had warned of looming Trump revolt). Dem mobs rampaged against the election, destroying property and attacking Trump supporters. Ax-wielding Antifa gangs took over Oregon streets and shut down an ICE office. Dems tried to subvert the Electoral College. Dems shot Repr Steve Scalise, almost killing him, and beat Sen Rand Paul, causing serious injuries. Dem thugs suppress Republican speech on campus. Raucous Dems pound Supreme Court building, shout at Republican Senators in Capitol, and threaten Republican officials in restaurants, on planes, etc. Dem celebrities joke about bombing the White House, killing Trump and his family. Dem leaders like Eric Holder, Cory Booker, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings, Jerrold Nadler urge violence or hurl inflamatory false accusations of treason and usurpation. (Holder refused to prosecute Black Panther voter intimidation. Obama protected violent campus groups. Holder urged Dems to kick Republicans; later he said he meant it figuratively, but his listeners got the message.) Trump-hat wearers fear assault by rabid Dem activists. Albright condones this outrageous fascist brutality. She incites more Dem hate and violence by likening Trump to Hitler and Republicans to Nazis. Indeed the point of her book is to make the reader hate and fear Trump and Republicans.
--- Liberal fascism was on display in nighttime Mueller Gestapo raid on Trump associate Roger Stone and wife on Jan 25, 2019. Large assault-force of heavily armed FBI rousted 66-year-old Stone from his home. They pounded on the windowed door, aimed their weapons at it, shouted for Stone to come out, and took him away in sleeping clothes and cuffs. His 72-year-old wife, hearing-impaired, later said she was awakened at gunpoint by two armored agents who ordered her out of bed and marched her outside barefoot wearing only her nightgown. CNN had arrived an hour earlier and filmed the raid. CNN reporter gave evasive answer when asked how he knew the raid was coming; clearly Mueller side had tipped him off. Media experts scoffed at Stone's complaints of his treatment, and pretended the raid was normal practice (for drug lords); they would have screamed hysterically if Hillary had been arrested in such fashion. The point of the fascist exercise was to terrorize the Stones and other Trump associates.
--- Albright says Jews are threatened by Trump (despite Jewish daughter, commitment to Israel), yet blames him for moving embassy to Jerusalem. (He cut off tiny funds to Pals vs many billions for Israel. Tree of Life shooter denounced Trump's Jewish ties.)
--- Warns against ethno/nationalist ideologies. (Cf Chosen People, Promised Land, Manifest Destiny, American Exceptionalism). Says fascists play on past wrongs. (Cf Holocaust, 9/11, Tonkin, Alamo, Maine pretexts.)
--- Blames Arafat for refusing peace. (He & Rabin won Nobel Peace Prize, but Jewish fanatic murdered Rabin after Netanyahu condoned cries of "Death to Rabin!") Says critics of Israel are antiSemitic.
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I confess to having used terms such as democracy, socialism, communism, and fascism without clearly understanding what they meant. Per Merriam-Webster, Fascism is “A political philosophy, movement, or regime … that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” In Fascism: A Warning Madeleine Albright observes that “A Fascist is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.” Albright then describes historical Fascists—Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco—and more recent examples of their ilk—Milošević, Chávez, Erdoğan, and Kim Il-sung to illustrate her definition. In the final chapters of her book, Albright takes Donald Trump to task for casting a shadow over American democracy with his embrace of violence, disregard for the truth, lack of integrity, and vilification of the press. What to do? Albright encourages us to defend freedom, to ask the right questions of our leaders and ourselves, and to refuse to ignore answers that are inconsistent with our ideals of American democracy.

This book answered my questions about the methods rulers of countries use to acquire power and hold on to it. She summarizes these steps in several chapters using examples from current governments with autocratic rulers or those leaning towards fascism. Her prime examples are, of course, Hitler and Mussolini and the methods they used to gain power and then to hold on to it. She sees a commonality of steps taken by these rulers such as their ability to change the country's constitution in order to give them more rights; their ability to control the country's judiciary; their ability to suppress/falsify the publication of news; their need to slander political opponents; and their ability to convince their public that only they are working for its interests - usually on nationalistic themes; their lack of concern for the rights of others. She contends that politicians who have fascist leanings learn from the successes of fascists in other countries and copy those same methods in their own country. She ends with a chapter on the present administration in the US in which she sees a parallel of action to those used by fascist politicians. The last pages list questions that her readers can use to judge if a political candidate is for democracy or a threat to it. The book has Notes and an index.